The present invention relates to a system for providing reliable and effective relief by computer in the event of a disaster. More specifically, the present invention relates to system for providing disaster relief when a disaster occurs in a widespread area where the communication means available is restricted.
The recent frequent occurrence of earthquakes, such as the Hanshin Great Earthquake, has caused enterprises or organizations which owe certain social duties to start preparing disaster relief plans for distributing necessary materials upon the occurrence of a disaster. Such plans are now in progress. As a prior art technology for dealing with the disaster relief using a computer, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JPA-6-131360 discloses a way of determining the number of persons required for dealing with a disaster or an accident depending on the type and magnitude of the disaster. This makes is possible to adequately manage the rapid increases in the number of persons needed and also the status of those persons can be determined.
When facilities, such as a computer center, are damaged by an accident that has occurred, it is necessary to first collect information about damaged resources before starting making relief plans for restoring these damaged resources to their original state. With such a disaster relief plan, it is helpful if relief dealing information is previously prepared on the assumption of a variety of accident cases, and an actual plan is made based upon a plan selected in response to an actual situation from information previously prepared. However, when the amount of original data needed becomes very great, there is the significant problem of whether or not such data can be collected rapidly when a disaster occurs. In particular, when a damaged resource is located far away from the storage location of the disaster relief dealing information, and a widespread communication network is damaged or communication-regulated, even if the data as to the damaged situation can be collected, adequate information for providing relief cannot be obtained. This sometimes prevents rapid and correct help from being provided.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problem and to provide a system that is capable of rapidly and effectively making and carrying out a plan for dealing with a disaster when it occurs.
According to the present invention, a disaster relief dealing system is provided including a plurality of server apparatus and a plurality of portable terminal equipment. Many types of communication networks are provided to which each of the plurality of server apparatus and the plurality of portable terminal equipment can be connected. Each portable terminal equipment includes means for connecting the terminal equipment to an available server apparatus over an available communication network among the plurality of communication networks, means for transmitting information about damaged resources to the server apparatus, and means for receiving and storing information about a damaged resources relief plan received from the server in a storage. Each server apparatus includes means for storing information about the damaged resources relief plan, and means for transmitting, in response to an inquiry from the portable terminal equipment, information about the damaged resources relief plan to the portable terminal equipment.
Furthermore, it is possible to program the above-described process on the terminal equipment as a computer-program and store it in a readable storage medium.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in view of the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention in conjunction with the drawings.